Kelly McParland: Putin hits a nerve with jibe at U.S. belief in its special status

Putin hits a nerve with jibe at U.S. belief in its special status

As if it didn’t have enough problems on its hands, the U.S. now finds itself in a debate over one of the unchallenged notions of U.S. national consciousness. The argument was set off by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who clearly knows what buttons to press to quickly get Americans riled up. Button number one is American “exceptionalism, the notion that the U.S., based on its values and history, occupies a unique place in the world.

Putin, who has been having fun making Washington look bad all week, tossed in a jibe at this conviction late in his op-ed in the New York Times:

“I carefully studied [President Obama’s] address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is ‘what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.’ It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

The response, as he must have expected, was immediate, intense and overwhelmingly hostile. “I almost wanted to vomit,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat who heads the foreign relations committee. Who is some jumped-up former KGB agent to lecture the United States on its national interest, or anything else for that matter?

Reactions veered between anger at Putin for daring to be so uppity, and outrage that he had so easily outwitted their president.

Talk radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh almost gave birth to a canary. After losing his copy of Putin’s argument — “I thought I had it here at the top. My bad, folks. At any rate, it’s an outrage” — he went on to explain what exceptionalism is, and isn’t.

What it isn’t:

It is not that we are better people. It is not that we are superior people. It is not that we are smarter people. It is not that God loves us and hates everybody else. It is not that God prefers us. It is not that God doesn’t prefer anybody else.

What it is:

The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations — and then along came the United States of America. Pilgrims were the first to come here seeking freedom from all of that. … They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of their ordinary lives. This country was founded that way. For the first time in human history, a government and country was founded on the belief that leaders serve the population. This country was the first in history, the EXCEPTION — e-x-c-e-p-t, except. The exception to the rule is what American exceptionalism is.

A Los Angeles Times headline asked: “We think we’re special. Is that so wrong?” Then it explained: “When Obama invoked ‘exceptionalism’ at the White House the other night, he was talking about America’s moral obligation as a world power, not the innate superiority of its citizens.”

Forbes.com, in a story topped, “Sorry, President Putin, But Data Shows America Actually Is Exceptional,” used a Gallup poll to note that more potential migrants around the world choose the U.S. over other countries.

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, insisting that American exceptionalism “was better than the Russian kind,” noted: “The moral case for a strike against the Assad regime is predicated on the fact that if the United States doesn’t do something, nobody will.”

Many of the respondents were careful to argue, like Limbaugh, that ‘exceptionalism” doesn’t mean Americans think they’re better than other people. While that may be true in the academic sense, to many Americans the subtleties are lost. In a commentary written before Putin’s remarks, another Post columnist, referring to U.S. “credibility”, exclaimed:

The United States still carries the biggest stick. We are still the bravest, most compassionate, most generous nation in the history of mankind. When our allies need us, our credibility is beyond reproach. We always act decisively when the stakes are clear. The world knows this. It is our exceptional history, not a single, transitory man, that inspires belief.

It was that sort of conceit that Putin found so easy to skewer. When a nation considers itself more compassionate, more reliable, more decisive and more generous than all others, it shouldn’t be surprised to find its presence wearing on the rest of the crowd. OK, if it’s so exceptional, why is it so desperately looking for friends and allies to join it in bombing Syria? And why are they so reluctant?

One difficulty has been the lack of an agreed-on definition of what does make the U.S. special. In a 2009 speech, Obama suggested that “in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality” the U.S. was the exception to the rule, but added that other countries also think they’re special — “Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism” .

On Tuesday’s televised speech on the Syria situation, he offered a different explanation: “When, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act. … That’s what makes America different.” But again he undercut himself, declaring that “America is not the world’s policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong.”

In effect, he was agreeing with Putin, that it’s dangerous for a country to consider itself exceptional, because events will always arise to humble it. The U.S. has long accepted that danger in return for the joy of considering itself, as a nation, a notch above the rest. Obama seems to feel it might be time to reassess the costs and benefits of that belief. The reaction to Putin’s suggestion indicates the bulk of the country is far from ready for that yet.